“Solo: A Star Wars Story” Premieres in Hollywood

Fans from around the world watched the festivities live on StarWars.com

Live streaming premieres can’t be easy, but beyond the actual ticket to get into the theatre, Anthony Carboni, Andi Gutierrez, and crew put on a great show and allow fans to feel the palpable excitement of the event.

Tonight, as fans from around the world watched a who’s who from around the Star Wars galaxy walk the red carpet into the Hollywood premiere of Solo: A Star Wars Story, the word “fun” was on many, many lips.

“It’s exciting for us as filmmakers,” said Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy to the StarWars.com cameras of the vibe surrounding the newest Star Wars standalone film. “We’re watching everybody experience this for the first time.

“This has been a long one,” she explained of the journey to Solo: A Star Wars Story. “We worked really hard, and Ron Howard has done a spectacular job.”

Walking into the film’s first public showing, Howard, a very veteran, Academy Award-winning director, said of the evening, “It’s a pleasure, so-so much fun; so exciting… we had a lot of fun making it, I hope [fans] have a lot of fun watching it.

“This is showmanship at its best, and it’s what Star Wars fans deserve – this kind of excitement,” he said of the Hollywood event to Gutierrez. “But I am also very glad. We worked very hard to make this release date; it was a big challenge. But the movie was not compromised one bit.”

Perhaps inspired by the blue California skies above, or probably just realizing the sheer grandeur of the moment, Howard added, “It feels like a summer movie to me. So I am really glad it’s happening now, and here we are.”

Realizing that they are actually “here” seemed complicated for the cast members, all of whom commented on the extraordinary moment at hand and the uniqueness of the production in their experience.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Alden Ehrenreich (Han Solo), as he surveyed the crowd, and finally noticed the life-size replica of the Millennium Falcon, which stood watch in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard. “It sounds ridiculous, but I hadn’t noticed that.

Solo: A Star Wars story undoubtedly benefits from an eclectic cast, but nobody seemed to embody the “fun and thrill” of the Saga more than Donald Glover (Lando Calrissian).

“Walk in and be Lando,” was how Glover described his approach to the film; an approach inspired by the original Lando, Billy Dee Williams. “That was all I really could do.”

A huge Star Wars fan, Glover said the realization that he would embody Lando “took a moment.” But through it, all the multi-faceted performer said that the fans had buoyed him.

“When it was announced, I went and bought a pizza,” said Glover to Carboni. “And at this shop, there was this guy who said, ‘Lando.’ It was so awesome.”

Awesome seems an understatement, particularly for the responsibility felt by everyone on the production.

“It’s the culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people,” said Kennedy, asked what she hopes fans come away with after seeing Solo: A Star Wars Story. “The main thing to think about is ‘Have a great time.’

“This is really fun. That’s what it’s meant to be, and that’s what it turned out being.

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A graduate of Boston and Northeastern universities, John Bishop became the beat reporter for BostonBruins.com prior to the B’s 2006-07 hockey season. While with the Bruins, “Bish” traveled North America and Europe to cover the Black & Gold’s every move via laptop, blog, and smart phone. The co-author of two books, Bygone Boston and Full 60 to History: The Inside Story of the 2011 Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins, John covered the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010 and the B’s 2011 championship run and banner raising before taking a faculty/communications position at a prep school outside Boston in 2013. He lives with his wife Andrea and sons Jack, Scott, and Luke in central Massachusetts.